Middle East Centre Booktalk

Oxford University

Welcome to Middle East Centre Booktalk – the Oxford podcast on new books about the Middle East. These are some of the books written by members of our community, or the books our community are talking about. Tune in to follow author interviews and book chat. Every episode features a different, recently published book and is hosted by a different Oxford academic.

  1. 4d ago

    The Resurrected

    Author, Joost Hiltermann discusses his debut novel 'The Resurrected' with Professor Eugene Rogan (St Antony’s College). They were meant to be dead, buried under the sand. But they survived. Two young Kurds manage to miraculously escape Saddam Hussein’s killing grounds to eventually find their way to America. A story of luck, nerve and perseverance, with many setbacks along the way. Partially based on true events, this novel tells the story of a genocide as remembered by some who lived through it – as victims, perpetrators, and witnesses. By weaving together their testimonies – some true, some false, others imagined – the author paints an enthralling portrait of survival and destiny under the worst of circumstances, the 1988 Anfal campaign in Iraq, and what happened afterwards. In America the survivors build protected but split-soul lives typical of first-generation immigrants – until one day the past comes calling. Published by Asfana Press in 2026: https://www.afsana-press.com/the-resurrected AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Joost Hiltermann is a Dutch researcher and writer. He was the Programme Director for the Middle East & North Africa at the International Crisis Group and was previously at Human Rights Watch. Joost holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has written for The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, Foreign Affairs and other publications.  Joost has published two books: A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja (Cambridge, 2007) and Behind the Intifada: Labor and Women's Movements in the Occupied Territories (Princeton, 1991). The Resurrected is his debut novel. Joost was one of the main researchers of the genocide against the Kurds for Human Rights Watch in the 1990s, culminating in his fictionized retelling of the case. He has remained in close contact with the two (real) survivors and their families to this day.

    51 min

  2. May 26

    Constructing the Achievement State: Cultural Administration in Postrevolutionary Egypt

    Dr Chihab El Khachab (Wolfson College) discusses his new book ‘Constructing the Achievement State: Cultural Administration in Postrevolutionary Egypt’. Chaired by Professor Walter Armbrust (St Antony’s College). After the 1952 revolution, the Egyptian state became an ideological project promoted by national cultural and media institutions. Focusing particularly on the years under the leadership of Gamal Abdel Nasser (1954–1970), Chihab El Khachab uses official written and visual sources produced by different governmental departments to show how low- and mid-ranking bureaucrats represented and embodied the Egyptian state through a praxis of 'achievement' (ingāz, pl. ingazāt). This study demonstrates how a successful anti-colonial nationalist movement built its own state apparatus. El Khachab argues that the state's 'achievements' are neither the tangible outcome of governmental work nor the self-evident metrics needed to evaluate national progress, but an ideological category deployed by bureaucrats. Conceiving achievements in this way allows us to understand how everyday bureaucratic work represents and embodies 'the state', and why this idea remains an important force in contemporary Egypt. Published by Cambridge University Press in 2026: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/constructing-the-achievement-state/BAB7ED73973C065D2CDE64C9D266FFAE

    59 min

  3. May 21

    Yazidis on the Margins of Humanity: Internally Displaced in Iraqi Kurdistan

    In this joint Refugee Studies Centre and Middle East Centre seminar, Dr Houman Oliaei discusses his new book. Chaired by Professor Pascal Menoret (Magdalen College). After ISIS's 2014 genocide, hundreds of thousands of Yazidis fled Sinjar, their ancestral homeland in northern Iraq. Most stayed within Iraq's borders, settling in camps and informal settlements in the Kurdistan Region. While global attention often focuses on refugees who cross international borders, the Yazidis' experience exemplifies a far more common but less visible form of displacement: people forced from their homes yet remaining inside their own country as internally displaced persons (IDPs). Drawing on research among displaced Yazidis in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Yazidis on the Margins of Humanity traces how they navigate the contradictions of internal displacement. Author Houman Oliaei shows how this produces a paradox of protection: international actors treat IDPs as too much like citizens to merit intervention, while governments deem them too displaced to be recognized as full citizens. In this interstitial space, Yazidis become hypervisible as victims but erased as political subjects. They are caught between formal citizenship and humanitarian aid, suspended between a traumatic past and a future they cannot securely claim, and confined to camps that weaponize impermanence to manage and eventually expel their residents. Yazidis on the Margins of Humanity argues that internal displacement today is not just a humanitarian problem but a political project of dispossession. States maintain sovereignty over populations they have effectively abandoned, while humanitarian institutions transform citizens into objects of care stripped of their political rights. Published by Indiana University Press in 2026: https://iupress.org/9780253075604/yazidis-on-the-margins-of-humanity/ AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Houman Oliaei is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Babson College. His first book, Yazidis on the Margins of Humanity: Internally Displaced in Iraqi Kurdistan (Indiana University Press, 2026), offers an ethnographic account of Yazidi displacement in post-conflict Iraq, examining humanitarian governance, political recognition, and belonging in the aftermath of the 2014 ISIS genocide. His broader research engages questions of humanitarianism, citizenship, forced migration, and mobility across the Middle East and beyond.

    34 min

  4. May 7

    Out of Gaza: A Tale of Love, Exile, and Friendship

    Dr Katharina Galor (Brown University) discusses her new book 'Out of Gaza: A Tale of Love, Exile, and Friendship'. Chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan (St Antony’s College). Out of Gaza tells the story of Dima Mansour, a young Palestinian who suffers hardship growing up in Jordan and Gaza during the Gaza War of 2014, later escaping to be with the man she loves in Belgium, where she is held in a detention center for illegal immigrants. Her harrowing story is told by Katharina Galor, an Israeli Jewish scholar who forms a close and unexpected friendship with Mansour. Despite the profound asymmetry that defines the geopolitical context of their lives—one marked by Palestinian loss and exile, the other by Jewish trauma and persecution—their bond uncovers surprising parallels in their shared experiences of displacement and survival. As their friendship unfolds, Galor and Mansour come to intimately understand the lasting impact of ethnic cleansing from the Holocaust and the Nakba, and how these pivotal events have shaped their families, identities, and ties to the region. Out of Gaza delves into themes of identity, belonging, and the enduring effects of historical trauma, showing how empathy and resilience can bridge even the deepest divides. Published by University of Nebraska Press in 2025: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/potomac-books/9781640126510/out-of-gaza/ AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Katharina Galor is Associate Teaching Professor of Judaic Studies at Brown University. Born in Germany, where her parents had fled from communist Romania, Galor was educated in Germany, France, Israel, and the United States. She is the author or coauthor of four books, including The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians (with Sa’ed Atshan), and writes for or appears in various media outlets, including the Forward, Die Zeit, NPR, Israeli TV, National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel.

    45 min

  5. Mar 25

    A keynote conversation with Saeb Eigner about Artists of the Middle East - 1900 to Now

    In this lecture, Saeb Eigner offers a journey through more than a century of modern and contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa, as documented in ‘Artists of the Middle East: 1900 to Now’. Spanning from 1900 to the present, the book brings together over 250 major artists — from early modernists to today’s leading contemporary voices — across a vast geographic area stretching from Morocco to Iran. Eigner will highlight how cultural heritage, linguistic and literary traditions, and regional socio-political realities have shaped different art movements and individual practices. By examining landmark artists such as those active in the mid-20th century alongside contemporary figures, the lecture will trace continuities and ruptures: how earlier modernist expressions gave way to new forms; how political upheaval, migration, globalization and cultural exchange influenced artistic production; and how art from the region today speaks to global audiences while remaining rooted in local histories. Saeb Eigner –Biography Saeb Eigner, Austrian by birth, spent his early years traveling the Middle East before settling in London, where he was educated. Fluent in several languages, including Arabic, he began his career in international banking and later founded a private investment firm. A founding member in 2004 of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, he played a key role in establishing one of the world’s leading financial centres, serving as Chairman of the DFSA (2011 - 2021). A former Governor of his Alma Mata London Business School and Chair of its Audit and Risk Committee. Eigner serves on boards related to finance, education, and the arts. A speaker on global business and economic issues, across major media platforms. He is committed to the arts and education as tools for cultural connection and social advancement. He authored Sand to Silicon (2002, 2008) and Art of The Middle East (2010, 2015), co- curated the British Museum’s Word into Art exhibitions in London and Dubai (2006, 2008), and recently authored Artists of the Middle East: 1900 to Now (2025). To view a copy of the slides in this talk, please use this link: https://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/sant/middle_east_studies/booktalk/2026-03-25-sant-mec-booktalk-eigner-SLIDES.pdf

    59 min

  6. Mar 17

    Contemporary Islamist Opposition in Morocco: Resisting Inclusion and Moderation

    This seminar was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Tuesday 3 March 2026 by Dr Alfonso Casani (Complutense University of Madrid) and was chaired by Professor Michael Willis (St Antony’s College). Alfonso Casani is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). He is Research associate of the Group of Studies on the Arab and Muslim Societies (GRESAM) at the University of Castilla-la Mancha and the Complutense Research Group on the Maghreb and Middle East (GICMOM) at the Complutense University of Madrid. His research interests focus on the study of political Islam, opposition dynamics and social movements in North Africa. He is co-editor of El impacto de la Guerra de Ucrania en el norte de África y Oriente Medio (Dyckinson). His articles have recently been published in journals such as Democratization, Contemporary Politics and the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.   Contemporary Islamist Opposition in Morocco: Resisting Inclusion and Moderation (2025) Edinburgh University Press https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-contemporary-islamist-opposition-in- morocco.html   Contemporary Islamist Opposition in Morocco: Resisting Inclusion and Moderation offers an in-depth and yet- unexplored analysis of the evolution and actions of Moroccan Islamist association Justice and Spirituality (al-Adl wa-l-Ihsane). By examining its mobilisation structure, the book enhances the understanding of Islamism as an oppositional force in non-democratic regimes, with a particular focus on Morocco. Contrary to the common premises of inclusion–moderation theory, al-Adl wa-l-Ihsane has undergone a politicisation process but rejects political inclusion; it promotes street mobilisation but refuses to resort to violence. Despite its illegal status and disregard for the regime’s red lines, al-Adl wa-l-Ihsane remains highly relevant as an anti-establishment actor.   Addressing these apparent contradictions broadens our understanding of inclusion–moderation approaches by introducing novel explanatory factors into the relationship between authoritarian regimes and Islamist opposition actors, including responses to shifts in opportunity structures and the effects of internal dynamics and learning mechanisms. It also deepens our knowledge of al-Adl wa-l-Ihsane, Morocco’s largest opposition actor, which nevertheless remains largely understudied.

    55 min

  7. Feb 27

    A Modern History of Syria

    This book talk was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Tuesday 10 February 2026 by author, Dr Daniel Neep (Brandeis University), and chaired by Professor Eugene Rogan (St Antony’s College). A Modern History of Syria (2026) https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/213366/a-history-of-modern-syria-by-neep-daniel/9780241003299 Few countries have had as vexed a political history as Syria. Carved out of the Ottoman empire at the end of the First World War, Syria was then brutally ruled by France. This French ‘mandate’ carved out new borders with equally provisional neighbours in a process that pulled apart families, trade networks and political assumptions that had already been ravaged by the war. Syria's subsequent history has been a series of attempts to make sense of its borders, including a failed attempt in the late 1950s to unite with Egypt and several humiliations at the hands of Israel's armed forces. The civil war that broke out in 2011 plunged Syria into a nightmarish series of disasters, including the terrible years of Islamic State, ultimately resulting in the reimposition of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship, which came to an end in 2024. Daniel Neep’s remarkable book creates a gripping, intelligent narrative of how Syrians have lived through these events, never losing sight either of the fates of ordinary people or of Syria’s rich, complex and diverse society, unwillingly or willingly brought together in such a highly contested space.

    49 min

  8. Feb 27

    Fire in Every Direction

    This book talk was delivered at the Middle East Centre on Thursday 24 February 2026 by Tareq Baconi (author) in conversation with Dr Ammar Azzouz (Somerville College). Tareq Baconi is a Palestinian writer, scholar, and activist. He is the grandson of refugees from Jerusalem and Haifa and grew up between Amman and Beirut. His work has appeared in, among others, The New York Times and The Baffler, and he contributes essays to The New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. He has also written for film; his award-winning BFI short One Like Him, a queer love story set in Jordan, screened in over thirty festivals. He is the author of Hamas Contained: A History of Palestinian Resistance, which was shortlisted for the Palestine Book Award, and Fire in Every Direction. Fire in Every Direction: A Memoir (2026) https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/tareq-baconi/fire-in-every-direction/9781399739634/ Both a love story and a coming-of-age tale that spans countries and continents, Fire in Every Direction balances humour and loss, nostalgia and hope, as it takes us from the Middle East to London, and from 1948 to the present. Tareq Baconi crafts a deeply intimate, unforgettable portrait of how a political consciousness – desire and resistance – is passed down through generations. In 1948, Tareq’s grandmother would flee Haifa as Zionist militias seized the city. In the late 1970s, she would flee Beirut with her daughter, as the country was in the throes of a civil war. In Amman, the family would eventually obtain the comfort of middle-class life – still, a young Tareq would feel trapped: by cultures of silence, by a sense of not belonging, by his own growing awareness that he is in love with his childhood best friend, Ramzi. After relocating to London, Tareq hopes to put aside his past. Yet as the Iraq War radicalizes young people around the world towards anti-war protest, history comes back to him. Living between the region and London, Tareq fits in neither and feels alienated from both. Queerness is policed back in Amman, just as his Palestinian-ness is abroad. These gradual estrangements escalate, forcing him to grapple with what it means to live in liminal spaces, and rethink the meaning of home.

    49 min
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About

Welcome to Middle East Centre Booktalk – the Oxford podcast on new books about the Middle East. These are some of the books written by members of our community, or the books our community are talking about. Tune in to follow author interviews and book chat. Every episode features a different, recently published book and is hosted by a different Oxford academic.

Information

  • Creator
    Oxford University
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Oxford University
  • Show Website
    Middle East Centre Booktalk

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